Boat arrivals, detainee levels hit new highs

Jessica Wright

IMMIGRATION detainee numbers more than doubled in one year while the cost of protecting Australian borders has skyrocketed, according to an official government report.

The figures were revealed in a week when all records were eclipsed for asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat.

The record was broken with the interception of two small boats north of Christmas Island on Thursday afternoon and again on Friday with the arrival of another boat carrying up to 25 passengers.

It was the fifth such arrival in four days and takes the number of asylum seekers approaching Australian shores so far this year to 5852, surpassing the 2001 record.

The latest detainee figures are revealed in the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service annual report for 2009-10.

During this period there was a 123 per cent increase in the number of people held in immigration detention facilities around Australia and on Christmas Island - from 4397 in 2008-09 to 9802 people in 2009-10. In the same period, 8749 people were taken into immigration detention compared with 3977 the previous year, an increase of 120 per cent. Of the 8749 people taken into immigration detention during 2009-10:

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1356 were people who had been living in the community but overstayed or breached visa conditions, representing 15 per cent of the total.

139 were foreign fishers, representing 2 per cent of the total.

7116 were unauthorised arrivals (1489 by air and 5627 by boat), representing 81 per cent of the total.

138 were in other categories, representing 2 per cent of the total.

Costs associated with border protection blew out by $170 million. The original budget for offshore asylum management in 2009-10 announced to Parliament in May 2009 for departmental and administered expenses was $121.7 million. Actual expenses were $292 million.

The budget for border protection and customs this year has been increased to $471.2 million.

There were 8150 on-shore applications lodged for protection visas in 2009-10. Just over half have been provided with visas, with applications decided within 90 days falling from 80 per cent to 71.8 per cent.

Shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison said the report was a damning assessment of the Labor government's immigration policies.

''The government has a rolling detention crisis caused by its own border protection failures,'' he said. ''More people are coming, people are staying longer, no one is leaving [and] the cost is escalating.''